Please help us Attorney General Kevin Jefferson.
As you may remember New York City OTB opened on the advice of its Counsel in 2003 and made money.
Help us Attorney General Kevin Jefferson. You know that their are both federal and state "churches" court houses in New York. Teach these fools the law and let a Judge write a wonderful opinion. Hope to see you in the Wall Street Journal next.
Open On 1st Palm Sunday, Otb Rakes In $2m
New York City Off-Track Betting made history yesterday, taking bets on Palm Sunday.
Since 1973, when Sunday racing was made legal in New York State, race tracks have been allowed to operate every Sunday except for Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.
While Aqueduct kept its doors shut, NYCOTB had its betting parlors open despite a letter from the New York State Racing and Wagering Board stating that it couldn't do so.
"We're not a race track," NYCOTB president Ray Casey said. "OTB's business is a simulcasting business."
Bettors responded by wagering an estimated $2 million yesterday on tracks from around the country, including Keeneland in Kentucky and Gulfstream Park in Florida.
Since 1973, when Sunday racing was made legal in New York State, race tracks have been allowed to operate every Sunday except for Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.
While Aqueduct kept its doors shut, NYCOTB had its betting parlors open despite a letter from the New York State Racing and Wagering Board stating that it couldn't do so.
"We're not a race track," NYCOTB president Ray Casey said. "OTB's business is a simulcasting business."
Bettors responded by wagering an estimated $2 million yesterday on tracks from around the country, including Keeneland in Kentucky and Gulfstream Park in Florida.
Judge: No arrests for loitering to beg
A federal judge has barred the Suffolk County Police Department from arresting people for merely loitering for the purpose of panhandling or begging, saying that federal and state court decisions going back almost 20 years have ruled that such laws are unconstitutional.U.S. District Court Judge Joanna Seybert issued the ruling April 23 in a civil rights case brought by Kevin Jefferson, a Riverhead man who is suing the county and police, he says, for arresting him only for loitering to panhandle at a fast-food restaurant in Bay Shore.
But in allowing the suit itself to go forward, Seybert warned Jefferson in her decision that the police "are not enjoined from arresting individuals for violating other, valid sections of the Penal Law while panhandling" such as disorderly conduct, harassment, and trespass.
Jefferson, who filed the suit by himself, without the assistance of a lawyer, said the police violated his First Amendment right of free speech.
Court decisions have said that when it comes to the First Amendment, there is no difference between a beggar soliciting money on the street and representatives of well-known charities doing so.
Vanessa Baird-Streeter, a spokeswoman for Suffolk County, said, "The police department will comply with the temporary restraining order issued by the judge."
Insp. Kevin Fallon, a police department spokesman, said that the department's computers will be changed to block an arrest from being processed for simply loitering to panhandle and that Suffolk police officers will be instructed in the judge's decision.
Jefferson, who said he was held overnight in jail before his case was dismissed, is seeking $275 in compensatory damages and several hundred thousand dollars in punitive damages.
He said he was near the drive-through window in the McDonald's parking lot at 107 Main St. in Islip early on the morning of March 15 and was hoping to get a hamburger when a police officer drove up.
Jefferson said he has had several confrontations with the officer, in which he asserted his right to legally panhandle. He said the officer struck him with open hands or threatened to strike him during these incidents. Jefferson said he was eventually arrested only after he tried to report the officer's conduct to other police.
A police report of the incident said that Jefferson was seen "leaning into a vehicle window stopped at the McDonald's drive thru and begging customers for money following a 911 call to that location complaining of the same."
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